Regional grid operators' power-system plans are missing near-term solutions for large-load data center demand; flexible transmission access is the focus.

Power system planners — including utilities, grid operators and regulators — are racing to develop new ways to bring large loads online faster, but they often overlook solutions that could increase capacity quickly while long-term, structural remedies are being negotiated and implemented, according to analysts and stakeholders speaking with Utility Dive.

Shortages of skilled labor and grid equipment are slowing the buildout of new generation to meet rising demand from AI data centers, while market reforms must navigate a regulatory process that can be prolonged. In response to directives from federal regulators and the White House, planners addressing load growth are focused on innovative integrations of large loads and generation to create more transmission availability.

Some experts argue that greater focus should also be placed on interventions like high-capacity conductors and advanced transmission technologies, which are more cost effective and can quickly create capacity for new large loads.

On June 18, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued "show cause" orders to six system operators directing them to submit plans for accelerating large-load interconnection. All six have requested additional time to develop processes for bringing these loads online without passing costs to other customers or jeopardizing system reliability.

FERC is not alone in pressing power system operators. The White House is leaning on tech companies and utilities to help the country "win the AI race" while adhering to a voluntary Ratepayer Protection Pledge requiring hyperscalers to fund the infrastructure needed to serve them. President Donald Trump has issued executive actions declaring infrastructure planning an urgent priority.

Yet this pressure campaign cannot alter the underlying market and regulatory structures determining who builds what and where. Many large loads await interconnection while Congress debates proposed legislation affecting them. Meanwhile, local governments and states are charting independent courses, with some imposing new vetting requirements or incentives, while others have proposed or enacted moratoria or pauses on new data center interconnections.

"The elements of Order 1920 showed the way, and large loads add the exclamation point on the need for new planning processes," said Zachary Zimmerman, Director of Research and Policy at Grid Strategies. "But there has not been a complete rethink of utility planning yet."

Given the increasing difficulty of bringing new data centers and generation online, some industry participants argue that increasing transmission system utilization can accommodate these loads more quickly. Transmission investments are rising, but most projects continue to be driven by reliability and asset renewal needs rather than load growth, according to FERC's 2025 State of the Market report.

Large loads require a "shift from project-by-project upgrades to proactive and coordinated long-term planning," according to a July report by the Energy Systems Integration Group and the Brattle Group. The report, titled "Transmission Planning with Large Loads," calls for a new framework that includes load flexibility and enables scenario-based, least-regrets planning.

The framework must also accommodate uncertainty in current load-growth forecasts, said Johannes Pfeifenberger, a principal with The Brattle Group and co-author of the report. This means incorporating "fast and cost-effective near-term options that address speed to power," such as advanced carbon conductors with fiber sensing and analytics, "while longer-term transmission solutions are being planned and built."

Some see potential solutions emerging from FERC Order 1920, issued in 2024, which overhauled long-term regional transmission planning. Most entities covered by the order began filing their plans this year, with additional compliance filings due in 2027. According to Zimmerman, the order created a "robust framework" for addressing uncertainties from retiring traditional generation and incoming variable resources — characteristics that make it valuable in an era of large-load demand growth.

The Southwest Power Pool has emerged as a potential model for holistic grid planning, though its recently-approved Consolidated Planning Process, which merged its interconnection and transmission tracks, was in development before large loads became the dominant concern. Nevertheless, FERC officials and others praised the plan as the right framework for today because it "explicitly brings different planning tracks together," while other regions are only developing elements of coordination.

Since the surge in large loads began around 2025, SPP planners have felt significantly greater urgency, according to Natasha Henderson, the system operator's senior director of strategic policy and grid innovation, and Casey Cathey, its vice president of engineering. In addition to the Consolidated Planning Process, SPP has introduced several other pathways for large loads willing to make concessions for interconnection.

In January, FERC approved SPP's plan for interconnecting High Impact Large Loads (HILL) and the associated High Impact Large Load Generation Assessment (HILLGA). Streamlined HILL 90-day interconnection studies will also apply to associated HILLGA interconnections when new generation is within two substations and specifically supports HILLs, Henderson said.

FERC has also approved SPP's Conditional High Impact Large Load (CHILL) process for interconnecting loads willing to be curtailed when transmission is inadequate — an approach sharing similarities with ERCOT's "connect and manage" process for generators agreeing to curtailment to get online. SPP's pending Price Adaptive Load Service (PALS), under FERC consideration, represents "true connect and manage," Henderson said, because it does not require loads to be matched with generation or transmission, though loads would face significant curtailment risk.

SPP is also developing what may be the first regional Intermediate Planning Process (IPP), according to Cathey, designed to accelerate speed to power through easily deployed upgrades, grid-enhancing and advanced transmission technologies, reconductoring, and load shedding to maximize reliability.

Other grid operators have indicated different approaches, primarily focused on trading load flexibility for interconnection speed to create availability on existing transmission. PJM Interconnection may see 70% of future U.S. data center development and, with costs spiking, faces pressure from the region's governors and legislators and from FERC to comply with show cause orders, according to a brief from law firm White and Case.

PJM's proposed long-term transmission planning reforms, outlined in its June 30 response to a December 2025 show cause order, are "a step in the right direction," said Zimmerman. Under PJM's proposed Interim Resource Adequacy Service (IRAS), large loads could interconnect without new capacity but must, when called upon, reduce load or switch to on-site resources. In August, FERC granted PJM an extension until November 16 to comply with regulators' directives on large loads and colocation.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, though not FERC-jurisdictional, is also advancing new processes. In June, the Public Utility Commission of Texas approved ERCOT's "Batch Zero" processing — a system-wide analysis of large loads in the interconnection queue, which led the system operator toward a consolidated process.